Interview

Once you are notified by the consular section or the National Visa Center that a visa number is available for your case, you should begin to prepare for your appointment with a consular officer. Several of the documents required for your Immigrant Visa (IV) application may take several weeks to collect.

Immigrant Visa appointments are typically scheduled on Monday through Friday after 1:30 pm. If your visa is issued on the day of your appointment, the consular officer will let you know when to collect the visa. It is not unusual for an IV application to be temporarily suspended if you are missing documents at your first interview. You will have up to a year to submit the missing documents without paying the application fee again.

The fee for each IV application is $400 ($755 for DV applicants), payable in cash only at the time of interview. The fee will not be refunded if a visa is not issued.

Required Documents

You and each of your family members who will accompany you to the United States must obtain the following documents and submit them on the day of interview, even if they were previously submitted to the USCIS with your petition. The instructions below include all of the documents typically required in an IV case. However, additional documents may be requested in unusual cases. If any of the documents listed below are unavailable, please contact the consular section for further instructions.

DV applicants should read the information on the Diversity Visas page as well.

Passports: Each applicant's passport must be valid for travel to the United States, and should have at least six months validity beyond the issuance date of the visa.

Birth Certificates: Applicants born in Nepal should obtain an original or certified copy of their birth certificates from the Chief District Office, Municipality/Ward Office or Village Development Committee with jurisdiction over their places of birth. Birth certificates must show the applicant's date of birth, place of birth and the names of both parents, certified by the local authorities. Birth certificates from other countries must contain the same information, and should be certified by the appropriate government authority.

Marriage Certificates: Applicants who are married must obtain an original or certified copy of their marriage certificates. Certified copies of Nepali marriage certificates may be obtained from District Administration Offices, Local Registrars, Municipality Offices or Village Development Committees.

Evidence of Termination of Prior Marriages: Applicants who were previously married must bring evidence of the termination of each prior marriage (not just the most recent one). Evidence may be an original or certified copy of a final divorce decree, a death certificate or an annulment. In Nepal, copies of divorce decrees can be obtained from District Courts and death certificates can be obtained from local authorities such as the Municipality Office or Village Development Committee.

Police Certificates: Police Certificates are required for each applicant aged 16 years or older. Applicants aged 16 years or older who have always lived in the same district should request a police certificate from the District Police Office. Applicants who have lived in different districts for more than six months when they were age 16 or older must also request police certificate from the District Police Offices in those districts. Nowadays, police certificate is issued only by police headquarter in Kathmandu, Nepal. Applicants who have lived in another country for more than six months when they were sixteen years or older must request a police certificate from the appropriate authorities of that locality. Also, if an applicant has ever been arrested for any reason, he or she must submit a police certificate from the location where the arrest took place, regardless of the applicant's age at the time or the amount of time spent in that location.

Police certificates must cover the entire period of an applicant's residence in each area, and should state what the police records show about each individual, including any/all arrests, the reasons for the arrests and the disposition of every case for which there is a record.

Court and Prison Records: If an applicant has ever been convicted of a crime, he or she must obtain a certified copy of each court record and any prison record, even if he or she was later granted a pardon or benefited from an amnesty. The court records should include complete information regarding the circumstances surrounding the crime and the disposition of the case including the sentence or other penalty or fine imposed. Nepali court records are available from the District Court of the locality where the conviction was made.

Military Records: Applicants who have served in the military of any country must obtain a copy of their military record. Royal Nepalese Army records are available from Army Headquarters.

Translations: All documents not in English must be accompanied by certified English translations. Certified translations may be obtained from the Law Books Management Board under the Law Ministry in Babar Mahal, Kathmandu.

Evidence of Financial Support: All beneficiaries of family-based petitions must submit Form I-864, filled out by the petitioner and accompanied by the petitioner's last one year's U.S. tax returns. Further instructions for Form I-864 are available on the State Department and USCIS web sites. Non-family-based immigrant visa applicants must submit other evidence of financial support, such as Form I-134, a notarized offer of employment or evidence of the applicant's own assets. A consular officer will determine the adequacy of any evidence submitted.

Other Documents: Beneficiaries of family-based petitions should bring all documents required to establish the relationship between the petitioner and the beneficiary. For example, the brother of an American citizen would likely have to bring his own birth certificate, showing his parent's names; his sister's birth certificate, showing the same parents' names; and his sister's marriage certificate, showing his sister's birth name and married name. Beneficiaries of employment-based petitions should bring a recent letter from the prospective employer, confirming the essential elements of the job offer.

How to Schedule an Appointment

When you have collected all of the documents required for your application, you should fill out and sign Form DS-230, Part I and send it to the Embassy along with Form DS-2002, which will be provided to you by the Embassy. You may fax or mail the forms to the consular section, or drop them off in person. If you fax your DS-230, you must bring the original to your interview. The consular section will complete necessary administrative processing of your application and schedule you for an appointment only after receiving your DS-230. Be sure to include complete, current contact information with your application, so that the consular section can send you further instructions and can inform you of your interview date.

Once an interview date has been set, you will be notified of the date and time, and you will be sent a package of information including instructions for medical examinations.

On the Day of Your Interview

You and your family members should come to the Embassy on the date of the interview appointment, bringing all of your documents with you, including your medical exams. You will have to pass through a security check, and the guards may ask to see your appointment letter. Immigrant Visa applications can be quite time-consuming, and you should expect to spend several hours or the entire afternoon at the Consular Section.

You will have to pay the visa application fee of $400 per applicant ($755 for DV applicants) and then your documents will be collected by one of the Embassy staff. A consular officer will interview you once the documents are assembled. The officer may ask questions about your relationship to the petitioner, or about other aspects of your case. If everything is in order, the consular officer will let you know when you can come to pick up your visa. Immigrant Visas are valid for travel to the United States for six months from the date of issuance.

It is possible that your application will be suspended due to missing, incomplete or insufficient documentation. If so, you will have up to a year to provide the missing documentation without having to pay the application fee again.